My own social mess explained

Despite some of my oldest friends winding me up about the fact that I flick through back editions of the Economist to wind down, I continue. I found a couple of interesting articles about the new internet super firms of today – Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple. The initial article (http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21567355-concern-about-clout-internet-giants-growing-antitrust-watchdogs-should-tread) talked about the key challenges they are facing, but it was the second more recent piece that I found more thought provoking (http://www.economist.com/news/business/21569766-social-networks-shares-recover-it-fixes-its-search-problem-search-me)… Until reading the article I hadn’t appreciated that “Social Search” was the third pillar of Facebook’s strategy after its Timeline and News Feed functionality. Although I personally don’t think social search has lots of legs, at least not in the same way as Google’s search has even become a verb in the English language, clearly this social thing isn’t going away (something which I think is a good thing). Effectively this article inspired me to sort out my own social mess... In addition to my recent (non-ethnic) cleansing on Facebook (username Aidan O’Brien), I have also started to have a clearer view on when I use this blog, Garmin Connect (username ajdobrien), and when I use my Twitter account (username @ajdobrien).  Facebook will be for glib, flippant or what I consider to be mildly amusing remarks, Twitter will be for geographically or place related musings – often for when I am travelling, Garmin Connect will be for those people who want to keep up with how many calories I've burned and kilometers I've covered during my various runs and bike and horse rides around the world, and this blog will be to keep family and friends updated on how the family is getting on, and some of my more half-baked two bit ideas. So, with my metal free arms and 20:20 eyesight I’m not just ready for 2013, I’m now all social and ready for the 21st century; although I am pretty sure that my young cousins and ex-au pairs are already lamenting the fact that Facebook is just so passé and that I should already be looking at the likes of Four Square, Pinterest, Instagram and Google+…I suppose I should really just be thankful that my children are too young to be embarrassed by me yet.